Health Before The NHS, BBC4, 9pm Tonight

Next time you moan about the service you receive from the NHS, take a moment to consider what people did before it existed. At the beginning of the 20th century, when life expectancy for men was 48 and women frequently died in childbirth, people generally did not call on a doctor at all, as healthcare was ramshackle, disorganised and had to be paid for.

My grandmother often spoke about this - will be interesting to see if her recall was as bad as she made it all sound

My Dad was a child in the 1930's, he broke his leg and the family couldn't afford to have it set. He walked with a very pronounced limp for the rest of his life. I expect we shall see stories like this.

You sometimes get people on DS (and elsewhere) saying the NHS should be stopped and we should go back to the old days of getting only the medical care you can pay for.

Just shows how stupid they are.

The NHS is far from perfect (and some do seem bent on destroyig it - despite what they claim) but it is many times better than what went before for the great bulk of the population. They hold the same (wrong) view about all social spending. They are the "the poor/unemployed/benefit claimaints etc have it too easy" types.

Interesting insight in to where the coalitions health care reforms will be taking us. Back to the 80's , yeah the 1880's.

You have been listening to too much propaganda from Labour. There was a lot of truth in the Yes Minister episode where one hospital was seen as job creation scheme by the unions and had no patients. Labour has also had nothing to say on the large number of "Pilgrims" costing the NHS many millions.

Pre-NHS there was a cottage hospital in probably every small town (and many villages) with larger ones in towns and cities. The bureaucrats (under both Labour and Conservatives) seem to be moving where there will be just one big hospital in each region. I sometimes think they would like just one enormous one in London to serve the whole of England.